Why water authorities must improve sanitation services

Dar es Salaam. As the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) directs water authorities lacking sanitation systems to build the facilities by June 2023, experts have warned that their absence put lives to risk.

The Water Utilities Performance Review 2020/21 Fiscal Year report recently released by Ewura shows that only 17 Water Supply and Sanitation Authorities (WSSA) out of 33 in the Regional National Projects (RNP) have faecal sludge treatment facilities.

The report also shows that 16 out of 26 regional WSSA are equipped with cesspit emptier trucks, forcing the regulator to issue directives against the authorities found with shortfalls.

But, experts said rapidly increasing urban population leads to growing demand for sewerage management, urging water authorities to design the said facilities.

They were of the view that the built sewerage infrastructure and faecal sludges would not only be used for treatment, but also for making better use of the accumulations to produce other goods.

Speaking to The Citizen, a sanitation expert from University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Dr Richard Kimwaga, said in recent years, the government has made a huge improvement in improving access to clean and safe water both in urban and rural areas.

He said increased supply and distribution mean more sewage would be produced across the country.

According to him, accessibility of water resources should go in line with the improvement of sewerage infrastructures including construction of enough treatment facilities to protect the health of citizens.

He warned that neglecting infrastructure development of sewerage materials would lead to serious environmental pollution and health concerns as well as outbreak of diseases.

“Currently, five percent of the sewerage generated in cities are passed through formal systems, while the remaining percent are directed into water sources such as rivers, lakes and oceans. This becomes a challenge to people especially children whose possibility to contract diseases is very high,” he observed over the phone.

Dr Kimwaga said the government has heavily invested in water projects, which was a good thing, but strengthened supply of clean and safe water should be followed by strengthened sewerage infrastructure across the country.

He said any negligence to strengthening the level of sanitation would lead to ballooning treatment costs to take care of the suffering population after contracting preventable diseases.

“During our training with water authorities, we normally insist that implemented water projects should go in line with sewerage infrastructure,” he noted.

According to him, the government should also increase budget for implementation of water projects, especially by introducing sewerage projects alongside clean and safe water projects.

He commended Ewura for the directive which he referred as a good beginning, noting that there were many more sanitation issues to be done in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The head of water resources engineering (WRE) department at the College of Engineering and Technology (Coet), Dr Augustina Alexander, said some residents used toilets unconnected to the sewerage systems posing serious health challenge to the population.

“During our training to authorities, we usually ask them to be careful in designing and management of fecal sludge. This refers to the storage, collection, transport, treatment and make safe use of end products or disposal,” she said.

According to her, collectively, the collection, transportation, treatment and end use or reuse of excreta constitute the “value chain” of fecal sludge management and that fertiliser could be valuable end products.

For his part, the director of water supply and sanitation in the Ministry of Water, Ms Joyce Msiru, said the ministry has allocated a specific budget in the 2022/2023 Fiscal Year to assist water authorities to design and construct low cost and decentralized sanitation technologies equipped with fecal sludge treatment.

“I’m not in a position of disclosing the amount that has been allocated until when the budget is due tabling in Parliament. What I can assure the public is that specific fund has been set aside for addressing challenges facing several water bodies,” she said over the phone.

According to her, that is a very important area as 80 percent of clean and safe water turns to sewerage, noting that the public should properly maintain sanitation in order to assure the public health is guaranteed.

In the directives, Ewura instructed them to design and implement an inclusive urban sanitation program for construction of low cost and decentralised sanitation technologies with faecal sludge treatment facilities reaching June 2023.

Furthermore, Ewura recommends in the report that the said water authorities should collaborate with local government authorities (LGAs) and the private sector to improve faecal sludge emptying and transportation.

Directives suggest that authorities should develop Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) that would provide clear roles and responsibilities that would be undertaken by both sides as well as other stakeholders in improving sanitation services in their respective areas of services provision.

“The implementation of the recommendations will result in improvement of water supply and sanitation services,” said Ewura director general Godfrey Chibulunje. “Collaborative approach should be used to establish non-sewered sanitation database that will take into consideration the entire sanitation chain,” he added.

But, details from report said basic sanitation data showed that about 58.11 percent of the households used latrines of which 37.86 percent are traditional, while 20.25 percent are improved pit latrines.

Furthermore, report says, 40.03 percent households use septic tanks latrines, 1.61 percent were connected to the sewerage system and the remaining 0.25 percent of the total households had no any sanitation facility (practiced open defecation).

Report analysis also show that a total of 1,322,757 latrines equivalent to 39.1 percent in regional WSSAs’ service areas were reported to be emptiable.

Review also show total volume of faecal sludge generated in the authorities’ services areas was 42,191,495 cubic meter equivalent to 115,593 cubic meter per day.